Hostage Point

Criminal psychologist Cameron Grainger (Rhona Mitra) is the go to woman that the Detroit police force call when they have a hostage negotiation situation going on. But when after having talked out a robber in a corner store only for him to be killed by one of the force's sharp shooters she calls it a day not only from being a negotiator but also as a criminology professor. But that all changes when she receives the call as this time her sister, Darcy (Erika Rosenbaum) has been taken hostage at the bank where she works and those who are in control are demanding for Cameron to be the negotiator.

"Crisis Point" is one of those movies which makes you think; surely it can't be that obvious? What I am on about is after the opening scenes which sees a young man gunned down in a situation which Cameron is negotiating we see a man clenching his fists as he watches the coverage on TV. This is followed up by scenes of someone not only stalking Cameron but also her sister Darcy so you think okay someone's out for revenge. But then we get this bank robbery where Darcy works and it throws you a bit of a curve ball as it seems like it is unrelated and it just happens that these two robbers end up taking Darcy as one of their hostages. And so I have to give "Crisis Point" some credit as it does throw you a bit of a curveball as to the plans of someone in particular when it comes to Cameron.

The thing is that whilst "Crisis Point" scores points for building some mystery and intrigue it is still a made for TV movie with some extremely obvious flaws. Firstly there is of course the realism and I am not just on about the representation of a hostage negotiation situation but also when it comes to diabetes as one of the hostages is an elderly lady who says she is a diabetic. Then there is the acting and whilst Rhona Mitra delivers the typical performance of a strong female lead character many of the others are prone to over acting. And then just for good measure there are some rabbit out of the hat developments as the owner of the bank mentions tunnels under the bank. Oh and I think the only people in this movie who are not attractive are the bad guys.

What this all boils down to is that "Crisis Point" whilst highly flawed does have a nice touch of mystery to it when it comes to what the bigger picture is as you think to yourself it can't be as simple as it appears.